He frowned. “You’re not my prisoner. I helped you to escape. I’m not like them.”
I had managed to offend him at last. “We’ll see.”
“I would never force myself on a female. Never.”
His hands clenched into fists at his sides, and his eyes darkened to the point where I could no longer see the center. His skin flushed, and his pulse raced at the base of his neck. He was beyond angry.
“Good to know.” I meant it, but I wasn’t going to apologize for protecting myself. Nor was I going to give him a gold star because he believed in consent.
I believed him. He didn’t have to help me escape to harm me. He could have beaten me, raped me or knocked me out cold by now, if that’s what he wanted. But I had learned to read people, and everything about this guy—except the fact that he was an alien—told me I could trust him. At least for now.
“What?” he asked as I stared at him.
I waggled my finger toward his face. “All that handsomeness would be wasted if you were an asshole.”
A slow smile grew. “You think I’m handsome?”
“Well, you aren’t covered in scales or poison slime.”
He stiffened as if offended. “You have very low standards for a male.”
I grinned and enjoyed teasing him. I didn’t have the time or inclination to stroke his ego. He was hot. Like, rip his clothes off hot. But I didn
’t know him. I didn’t know where I was. My mate was dead. I couldn’t go home. I had nothing. No one. Nada. So I focused on the one thing I did know. The one thing out here that made sense to me.
“If you know Bertok, then you’re from Trion.” I didn’t state it as a question. When he’d noticed the piercings on my breasts, he’d recognized them for what they were: a Trion adornment.
His eyes widened again as if I continued to surprise him. “Yes.”
“Great. Then you can take me back. Do you have a ship?” I looked around as if it were a car parked on a street.
His gaze narrowed.
That was a yes if I ever saw one. “So, you do have a ship. The big blue lady’s going to track you down to get even, so why not head to Trion right now?”
“I will never return to Trion.” He turned on his heel and walked at a pace that forced me to run to keep up, as if he were walking away from more than me. “I will take you to Ivy and Zenos. Then you will be their problem.”
I wasn’t quite sure who Ivy and Zenos were, but I jogged and stared at his ass as I did so, glad for the time I’d spent exercising on Earth. Being able to run had meant survival for me on more than one occasion. “What about the scaly alien? The one covered in slime?”
“Jirghogis? He is not my problem. Based on what you said, you’ve got bigger ones. Like Bertok and Cerberus.” He ran a hand over his face then started walking again. “Fark, human. When you get in a mess, you don’t go small,” he said as he went.
I let him walk off. He might be good on the eyes, but he was a pain in the ass. And he’d refused to take me where I wanted to go. For all I knew, this Ivy and Zenos were blue and slimy, respectively. No, thank you.
I turned back the way we had come. There had been several smaller corridors along the way. I would find somewhere to hide. Steal some clothing and food. Look around, find a transport room or two and get the hell off this planet. If this Cerberus guy wanted me, if some blue lady was around probably trying to find me, I had to be gone. Pronto.
I’d transport to Trion and hunt down Bertok. Kill him.
Then I’d go home. I didn’t care what the law was. The Coalition and their Brides Program could go to hell. I was not staying out here. I was going to make sure Bertok could never hurt anyone else, ever again, and then I was going home.
Life sucked everywhere. At least on Earth, I knew the rules and how to break them without getting killed.
4
Isaak
“Fark. Stubborn female,” I muttered.
Tangling with the human had done irreparable damage to my equilibrium. I had not been this frustrated since I’d left Trion behind.